Inside The Bills

At next week’s owner’s meetings in Palm Beach, Florida the NFL’s Competition Committee will go over proposed rule changes. One of the proposed changes was submitted by the Buffalo Bills.

The Bills have proposed that the instant replay official upstairs in the booth make all the decisions on plays under review rather than the head official on the field. The intention of the proposal is to speed up the game and not have the referee have to go over to the sideline watch several angles of the play in question under the hood and get on the headset and then make a decision and return to the field.

Some of the other more notable proposals are

Expansion of the playoff overtime rule in which each team gets one possession (unless the initial possession results in a touchdown) into the regular season.

Allow one injured player on each team to be put on an injured reserve status that would not be season-ending.

Change the 12-men-on-the-field penalty so that it becomes dead ball. Once it’s obvious to the officials that one of the two teams is going to have 12 or more players on the field, the officials will throw a flag and blow the play dead. The intent is to prevent teams from running down the clock by purposely putting 12 men on the field and taking the penalty.

Expand automatic review to include all turnover plays. Last season, every scoring play was reviewed by the instant replay official.

Expand the horse collar penalty to include such plays that are made on the quarterback in the pocket. They’ve been previously exempt from being flagged as part of the rule.

Extend the trading deadline from Week 6 to Week 8.

Expand the offseason roster from 80 to 90 with unsigned draft choices counting toward the new total. Right now they don’t.